Anxious wait as child care as squeeze worsens

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Thousands of families across Melbourne are waiting anxiously to
hear whether their children will get into child-care centres this
year.

It is feared many children could miss out, with long waiting
lists in inner-city areas such as the City of Port Phillip.

Children's services co-ordinator Jo Smale said about 1600
families were waiting for child-care places in Port Phillip, 41.5
per cent more than last May.

"We've got a crisis on our hands and the demand is increasing,"
she said.

While reliable figures are often hard to obtain because families
put their names on several waiting lists, Ms Smale said lists
across the area had been centralised to avoid duplication.

Council statistics suggest the number of children aged under
four will continue to increase in the area, particularly Port
Melbourne and St Kilda. The area has 1229 child-care places.

"We've got more than double the demand that we're able to
provide and the number is growing," Ms Smale said, adding that the
average wait was about 18 months.

The council hopes to build a new child-care centre with up to 90
places on the grounds of the Elwood Primary School.

The council said the new centre would provide a "one-stop shop"
for families, comprising child and maternal health services and a
kindergarten on the school site.

Negotiations on the centre with the school and federal and state
governments are expected to resume when school begins.

In the City of Melbourne, 470 children are waiting for a place
at one of the four council-run centres.

In the City of Yarra, the waiting list for long day care has
remained constant at under 500 places.

The council stressed this was not an accurate figure because
parents usually registered at a number of centres.

We've got more than double the demand that we're able to provide.JO SMALE, child-care worker

While Moreland City Council did not have up-to-date figures, a
spokeswoman said: "I think it's pretty easy to say there's high
demand in Moreland, as there would be in other councils."

Waiting lists for places in not-for-profit child-care centres
have also risen steadily for five years, according to Community
Child Care, the peak body for Victoria's community child-care
services.

But the Child Care Centres Association of Victoria said the true
number of people needing child care would not be known until March
after centres had replaced children who had started school.

"I think the figures would be grossly inflated," said chief
executive Frank Cusmano.

A State Government spokeswoman called on the Federal Government
to increase the number of child-care places in Victoria.

The spokeswoman said the State Government was providing $16
million over three years to establish new child centres and
confirmed that the Department of Human Services was having
discussions with the City of Port Phillip about a new centre.

A spokeswoman for federal Family and Community Services Minister
Kay Patterson said the Commonwealth's child-care funding was
unprecedented, with 128,366 child-care places funded in the last
budget.

She said the funding for long day care was not capped and the
Government funded demand. The Government also supplied 8520 places
for out-of-school hours care.

Port Phillip Council and a local parents group have invited
Senator Patterson and State Community Services Minister Sherryl
Garbutt to a forum at the St Kilda Town Hall next month.